


My Veins Know Winter (But Refuse to Numb)

by Rapis_Razuri



Series: Blossoms & Brynhildr [2]
Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: F/M, Hoshido | Birthright Route, Hurt/Comfort, LeoSaku Week 2016
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-19
Updated: 2016-12-19
Packaged: 2018-09-09 18:00:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8906098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rapis_Razuri/pseuds/Rapis_Razuri
Summary: “You saw what I was doing. The King of Nohr, feeling sentimental and playing in the snow. What a disgrace…”[LeoSaku Week Day 2: Winter]





	

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Winter  
> Word Count: 1388  
> Notes: Birthright route. Title comes from Robbie Blair’s “Deliver”

Snow still fell from the sky, light as a feather, but the cold sharper than a sword. The spires, the bridges, everything was covered in a soft layer of white, making everything seem just a little bit brighter despite the overcast sky.

Despite that and the warmth provided to her by her white furs, Sakura couldn't help but shiver. When she tilted her head back, the snowflakes landed on her face, brushing against her cheek like a lover’s kiss, delicate and brief. She always had a fondness for snow. She and Hana used make paper snowflakes to decorate their rooms with, she and Takumi would build igloos to hide in while everyone around them threw snowballs to and fro, and there was always something gratifying about finding the first shoots of spring in the frozen mud and melting ice as the days grew warmer.

None of that was happening here, however. Hana was still asleep in her room and Takumi was back home in Hoshido. Other than her, the only other person in the courtyard at this hour was the man kneeling in the snow before her.

He looked up only long enough to acknowledge her when she approached. Unlike her, he didn't seem bothered by the cold at all, despite the melting snowflakes in his hair. She knelt down on the ground a few feet away and he didn't send her away. _That’s good_ , she thought as she watched his hands work magic of a different sort.

The miniature castle before him was built of sticks and snow: white turrets, towers, and a walled courtyard. A forest of twigs bounded both sides of a pebble-lined road leading to the front gates. Beside it, there was a second smaller building - a soldier's barracks, perhaps? Or a stable?

“It’s beautiful,” Sakura couldn’t help but say.

“Thank you.” His bangs were damp, sticking to his forehead. Leo was using the sharp fingertip of his gauntlets to embellish the towers now, adding windows and archways and eyes fixated on his task as though he intended to trace out every brick. He must have been out here for a while now and she couldn't stop herself from worrying for his health.

“I-it doesn’t look like K-Krakenberg…”

“That’s because it isn’t.”

“Is it…” _Deep breath_. “I-is it the Northern Fortress?”

This does make him pause. “I see you’ve been talking to Corrin.” There's no anger in his voice, just a statement of fact.

She has, so she nodded. Corrin always spoke so fondly of the castle where he grew up. According to him it was lonely sometimes, and mostly isolated in a way that makes it feel like it was a world of its own. _A prison_ , he had said wistfully with only the smallest trace of regret, _but a simple and happy place where my biggest worry was when I will be able to see my brothers and sisters again_.

“In the snow would be the only time Xander played with Elise and Corrin,” Leo replied absently. “The first time you see them, you'd think that he was taking a child's game too seriously because he'd look stern even then, but after watching for a while, you'd realize he's very… gentle about it. He never aimed for the face and his snowballs were never tightly packed so he wouldn't hurt somebody by accident.”

He stood and moved to work on a different part of the fortress, his side turned to her.

“Then he would retire and Camilla would come out to build snowmen with them. Elise and Corrin would roll the biggest piles of snow they could and Camilla stacked them up while they went and gathered sticks and rocks for eyes and arms. Sometimes, they built one for each of us.” He chuckled wistfully, “I remember how the one of Xander would always have the angriest expression…”

Sakura felt her heart lurch, for him and for his family. She certainly knew what Prince Xander looked like when he was angry, but it was not the expression she remembered most clearly.

“And during all that I would be inside with a book. Elise used to call me _grumpy pants_ because I never joined them outside. Playing in the snow… I'd scoff, but I would always be next to a window where I could watch.”

His back was arched for more reasons than his sculpture, the melting flakes in his hair made his crown seem more perilously rested on his head than usual. It made her want to reach out and brush the snow off his shoulders and ease some of his burdens, but she’s not sure how such a thing would be received.

“I-it all sounds so wonderful,” Sakura whispered. He sounded to vulnerable talking about his deceased siblings and reminiscing of happier times, she wasn't really sure how to comfort him. “I can’t imagine w-what it was like t-to lose th-them.” She could, a little. Corrin. For a time, Ryoma. _Azura_. but… “Y-you must miss them terribly...”

At once his jaw tightened and his hand stilled. Without warning he pulled his hand away – before knocking down a tower of his replica Northern Fortress.

Alarmed, Sakura scrambled back. “I-I’m s-sorry,” she stammered as a second tower went down. _Why did I have to go and say that?_ “I shouldn’t have said anything...”

Leo had already risen to his feet, kicking at the ruins, determined to erase all signs of its existence. “You are to not speak of this to anyone, understand?”

She wouldn’t have anyway, but something about the way she'd given him her word seemed to struck him. He whirled around, a black king surrounded by white.

“Sakura…” He sounded genuinely pained. “I… I didn’t mean to scare you. It’s… not you, I promise.” She could hear the snow crunched beneath his feet as he knelt by her side and offered her a hand, palm up.

Sakura took his hand and he helped her to a stand on her numb legs. “Y-you didn’t scare me,” she said, looking towards the ruined castle. “I-I was surprised is all.”

“I didn’t want anyone else to find it,” Leo explained, though his gaze regretful as he followed her's. “You saw what I was doing... the King of Nohr, feeling _sentimental_ and... and _playing_ by himself in the snow. What a disgrace…”

“I-I don’t think so.” She untangled one hand from his and brushed the snow off his shoulder. “I-I think it’s… human.” She close enough that she could see little drops of ice on his lashes. He has such long lashes... “I-if you need to hide it b-because of y-your image, I won’t tell you th-that you shouldn’t. I just... I just don’t want you to feel like it’s a disgrace to... miss people.”

“You always seem to know the right words to say…” He took her hand and kissed her gloved palm, ignoring the snow caked into the cloth. “ _This_ is why being with you makes me feel at peace, Sakura. I’m not the king Xander would have been. He was raised and groomed for this role, I can't possibly be what he should have been, but you... you make me feel like I don’t have to be.”

 _He shouldn’t have to feel this way_ , Sakura thought fiercely. Even from the beginning, Leo and Xander were two different people, two different princes that would have been two different kings even if both of them had been, in Leo's own words, raised and groomed for the role.

It's not fair for Leo to compare them like this, but she wondered if she would think the same of herself if she was in his situation. “Leo… I think you should go back,” she said at last, “Y-you can’t afford to get sick and someone might have noticed your absence by now.”

He fixated her with a stare through half-lidded eyes. “So someone might have,” he agreed, “And if not, duty calls nonetheless, but...” Leo smiled down at her as he reached up to brush a strand of hair behind her ear. “May I trouble my future queen for a kiss before I return?”

 _It’s no trouble at all_. If anyone asked, Sakura could always say she was simply blushing from the cold.


End file.
